Anna Wintour just gave the best career advice ever

Vogue editor Anna Wintour has some advice for young fashion industry employees: Get fired.

“Everyone should be sacked at least once in their career because perfection doesn’t exist,” Wintour, 65, told author Alastair Campbell for his new book, Winners: And How They Succeed. “It’s important to have setbacks, because that is the reality of life.”

Wintour has reportedly been fired before. She got booted from a position at Harper’s Bazaar in 1975 after being there for just nine months, according to Us Magazine.

The famed editor doled out some additional advice: “People work better when they have responsibility,” she said. Wintour also suggested it’s important to exude confidence on the job. “Even if you aren’t sure of yourself, pretend that you are, because it makes it clearer to everyone else.”

When acting like a boss makes you feel like a fraud

Dear Annie: I have a really weird problem. About two months ago, my boss abruptly quit to take a job at another company, and I got promoted literally overnight into his role as leader of my 28-person team. This is great, of course, except for one thing: I’ve never managed anyone before and I don’t feel ready.

Every time I act like I’m in charge — for example, running a team meeting or telling someone they have to meet a deadline — I feel like I’m just pretending to be the boss, and everyone can see through my act. I’ve signed up for what little management training my company offers, but is there anything else I can do in the meantime? Should I just “fake it till I make it”? — Philadelphia Phony

Dear Philadelphia: Your problem isn’t weird. Being thrust into a management role without any time to prepare would be a challenge for anyone.

It’s also more common than it used to be. “Not only have many employers cut back on formal management training, but there is less informal training now,” observes Herminia Ibarra, who teaches leadership and organizational behavior at INSEAD in Paris and wrote a new book, Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader. “Until recently, people on their way up learned from other managers, who had time to mentor them and clue them in on some of the subtleties of the job. It was almost like an apprenticeship.”

These days, with fewer and busier bosses, and many employees working in remote locations, “a lot of the informal mentoring that used to ease the way to a promotion just isn’t happening,” she adds. “Now, you’re far more likely to have to figure things out for yourself, which is much harder, and much more likely to make you feel like a fake.”

Ibarra suggests you think of the adjustment to management “not as faking it till you make it, but faking it until you learn it.” It might help to keep in mind that a big chunk of the discomfort you feel as a new boss is simply normal growing pains. Stepping into a bigger role “is always a stretch. You’re always in over your head at first, because nothing in your experience is similar to this,” she says. “Authenticity as a leader is an outcome, not a starting point, and your true self as a manager isn’t going to be the same as your old self.”

So how do you get from here to there? “Asking advice from peers may not get you very far, because people tend to tell you things like, ‘Just be more confident,’ which doesn’t help,” Ibarra notes. You could also try emulating a favorite boss, adapting his or her style to your current job. But “you have a different personality, a different team, and different circumstances. So that may not work either.”

The most successful leaders Ibarra has studied have grown comfortable with bigger roles by emulating more experienced leaders in their own organizations. “Pay close attention to particular things others do well — how they run a meeting, how they project competence, how they give feedback,” Ibarra says. If possible, recreate the old mentoring approach by getting to know higher-ups better. “Ask them who influenced them, and how they think about what they do,” she suggests.

The point isn’t to imitate anyone, which could make you feel like even more of a phony, but to gather ideas that might be helpful in refining your own style. Act Like a Leader quotes martial arts guru Bruce Lee, who counseled anyone learning a new skill to “use only that which works, and take it from anywhere you can find it.”

The main thing that will make you feel like less of a fraud: Time. “There really is no such thing as a ‘born leader,’ and no one correct way” to become accustomed to leading, Ibarra says. “You have to try things and experiment with different approaches until you find you’ve grown into it.” At only two months in your current job, you’re just getting started. Says Ibarra, “It takes time, so be generous and a bit forgiving of yourself.”

Talkback: If you’ve ever felt you were “faking it” in a new job, how did you get over that? Leave a comment below.

How McDonald’s Don Thompson could have saved his job

Last week, Don Thompson announced he would retire as McDonald’s president and CEO after less than three years at the helm. Thompson is being blamed for almost all of the fast-food chain’s troubles: confusing the menu; not letting customers customize enough; not riding the healthy food trend; undermining children’s well-being; flip-flopping on America’s minimum wage debate; adding products that extended wait times; food safety scares abroad, declines in same-store sales.

In all seriousness, however, as investors, analysts and pundits are expected to eventually line up to scrutinize moves by his successor, Steve Easterbrook, it’s a good time to remember that McDonald’s MCD is a lot bigger than Thompson, and a lot bigger than Easterbrook. The chain employs more than 1.5 million employees in about 120 countries. In its mission statement, the first words in the company’s plan to provide “an exceptional customer experience” is ‘people.’ That includes employees, who have the lead role in achieving McDonald’s mission and Thompson should have given his employees more tools to do just that.

Here’s what I, as President and Co-Chairman of a management consulting firm, always want to ask ousted CEOs like Thompson: What if you had focused on your people by using, as your governing principle, what I call the ‘success triangle,’ which asks whether a company has a clear vision that employees are capable of achieving. If not, it would be wise to ask why and how can a leader make them capable?

It appears Thompson did not take these measures. Let me explain.

Most companies work hard to successfully articulate a clear mission. McDonald’s mission is as clear as a bell, but if I were a McDonald’s employee, I would probably also wonder exactly what that mission means for my job? When employees are asked to alter a process, raise their performance, or deliver an improvement, you can incentivize them all you like, but the needle won’t move unless you articulate the precise change you desire at the granular level for each employee.

How can managers do that? For starters, they must let employee know what they are doing right that they need to do more of; what they are doing wrong that they need to change; what they are doing too much of that they should be doing less of. That’s it. Those are the only levers employees have to pull to meet management’s objectives. Training is also essential, but does it make employees capable? No, it just shows them how to follow processes. It does not give them the time or resources to change their behaviors. Lacking those things, training has an immediate impact but it’s unsustainable. Weeks or months later, you’ll hear managers fretting, They know what to do, so why aren’t they doing it?’

It’s reasonable to question whether the success triangle may be more difficult to embed in a business like McDonald’s that is heavily dependent on its franchises. I would say no. Independent franchisees are just another constituency of leaders that a CEO must hold accountable to minimum, non-negotiable corporate standards. When that happens, the franchisee’s employees are in turn motivated to achieve the CEO’s vision and capable of doing so.

I’m not a McDonald’s insider, but if Thompson didn’t use clear, capable and motivated thinking to diagnose his company’s product and efficiency worries and pass the importance of those traits onto his employees, then it’s time for a new leader to step in so McDonald’s can truly get behind their slogan, “I’m lovin’ it.”

Fire in haste, repent at leisure: Sanofi wonders why it can’t find a new CEO

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, drugs firm Sanofi SA’s SNYNF Chairman Serge Weinberg may have to acknowledge in his results presentation next week that the hunt for a new chief executive is not going well.

At least three potential candidates in a narrow field have turned their back on the job heading France’s largest company.

The manner of Chris Viehbacher’s shock dismissal three months ago, and the surprisingly small pay-off he won last week, have cast a long shadow over the process.

“I think it is going to take time,” said a source close to the company. “What we risk missing in the meantime is a strategic vision that you cannot have without a deep knowledge of the pharmaceuticals sector.”

Weinberg, who will be 64 on Feb. 10 and does not have a pharmaceuticals background besides his five years on the board, is running Sanofi himself while board member Jean-Rene Fourtou conducts a search–one which began well before Viehbacher was fired.

Last week Christophe Weber, the French chief operating officer of Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, told Reuters he had rejected an approach.

Paris-schooled Olivier Bohuon, chief executive of British medical devices maker Smith & Nephew Plc SSN, told staff in November he had no plans to leave, and in the same month, former Wyeth boss Bernard Poussot joined the board of Sanofi’s rival Roche SA .

AstraZeneca Plc AZN Chief Executive Pascal Soriot, another prominent French pharma executive, has played down any interest by saying he sees himself as more Australian than French.

Weinberg has said an understanding of Sanofi’s French culture is important to the search for “mainly outside candidates”.

But he has rebuffed suggestions that non-French candidates are unwelcome, despite his experience with the German-Canadian Viehbacher, who ruffled establishment feathers by keeping secret plans to cut French jobs, and by moving his domicile to the U.S.

Viehbacher was fired abruptly on Oct. 29 last year, hours after he had presented a poor set of third-quarter results, and days after a leaked letter he sent to the board showed he had found out months earlier of Weinberg’s plan to get rid of him.

The news shocked investors, who had seen the outspoken and affable former GlaxoSmithKline executive as a strong manager. Weinberg put the sacking down to poor execution and lack of communication with the board — citing partly a poor outlook for the diabetes division, which accounts for more than 30% of profits.

And Sanofi’s shares, down about 1.7% at €82 since the sacking, have recovered most of the losses suffered after the initial shock.

Meanwhile, last week’s announcement of Viehbacher’s severance settlement has raised new questions about whether there is more behind his dismissal.

Viehbacher received €4.44 million ($5 million) in severance, even though the amount stipulated under the terms of his employment was €5.92 million.

“The trouble with finding a successor hinges on the fact that we don’t know the real reason he was fired, and because a lot of people are asking themselves questions about the subject,” said an industry insider who has spoken to some potential candidates.

“The very low pay-off (sic) he received only reinforces the idea that the reasons he was fired are not the ones that have been talked about.”

It is not unusual to find entrepreneurs and executives at their desks for 10 to 12 (and even more) hours a day, determined to create, grow and sustain their businesses. While hard work almost always leads to business success, sitting at a desk all day can also have negative consequences.

Recently, several studies have pointed to the dangerous effects of prolonged sitting. A study by German researchers found that sitting too much is the new smoking — raising your risk of diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers. And the risk actually increases with each two-hour period of sitting time.

Another review recently published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute confirms that sitting can be fatal, with too much sitting being associated with a 24 percent increased risk of colon cancer, a 32 percent increased risk of endometrial cancer, and a 21 percent increased risk of lung cancer. The really bad news? Not even exercise can reverse the harmful effects of sedentary behavior.

Business owners can either let this information scare them, or make some simple changes and do something about it. My mantra has always been, “change your life, not your lifestyle.” Successful business owners are never going to close up shop, or start working less. They have a business to run! Instead, it’s about finding ways to incorporate health and fitness into what we already do every day.

Movement is the key. Our bodies were never made to sit hunched over a desk or computer all day. The negative effects on our circulation, respiration and posture show up in the statistics of how many people suffer from diseases and back problems from sitting. When you combine this with poor nutrition and obesity, the effects are even worse. Add to this the mental aspect: a lack of movement increases fatigue, reduces focus, adds stress and lowers productivity.

Below are some of my top tips for incorporating movement into your day:

1. Change the way you sit

A new way of sitting called motion seating can help you keep moving and burning calories while you work. Swopper chairs allow for bouncing, moving, perching and rocking, while also helping maintain proper posture. Moving while sitting every day vs. sedentary sitting has a profound cumulative effect on health while also improving mood, mental clarity, focus and increasing energy levels. The new muvman chairs are perfect for the modern workplace.

2. Walk while you talk

Take conference calls while you walk around the office. This is not only good for fitness, but it helps manage stress and fires up creativity.

3. Move every hour

Every hour at work, have a little ringer go off from your cell phone, or set yourself a computer reminder to take a stretch, walk to the nearest copy machine or grab water.

4. Take 10-minute exercise breaks

It can be hard for business owners to find time during the day to get in a full 30-minute workout or hit the gym. Instead, try exercising at your desk in various 10-minute intervals. This could include simple things such as 50 stand-ups, squatting into your chair; 100 arm rolls forward, 100 backward; 10 to 15 desk push ups and wall squats.

5. Alter your behaviors

Find ways to move without really trying or without changing your activities. Park near the back of the parking lot and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, stand up to visit the file cabinet instead of rolling your chair or go see a co-worker in person instead of emailing them.

This post is in partnership with Essence. The article below was originally published at Essence.com.

By Charreah K. Jackson, ESSENCE

Bill Duke’s new documentary Light Girls shares the stories of lighter-toned women. Producer Stephanie Frederic knows the impact of colorism firsthand and considers the film the hardest project on her 150-film resume. See her career journey and advice for healing colorism.

The gig: I am the producer of the documentary Light Girls which will premiered on the Oprah Winfrey Network January 19th. I am the CEO of FGW Productions, we produce footage and trailers for movies, television and documentaries to market to multicultural communities. I have worked on 150 movies including Ride Along 2 and The Princess and the Frog.

The journey: I started my career as a television news reporter for years with the intent of becoming a news anchor. When I moved to Los Angeles, I started interviewing celebrities and covering movies. I was approached by someone from a studio for an opportunity to help out on a little project for Disney DIS. That was Toy Story. I continued to work with Disney and created my company in 1997. My company transformed into this business of helping to market movies to communities of color, which make up 51% of the box office.

The making of Light Girls: This documentary was the toughest thing I’ve ever done. Colorism is a tough conversation that Black women have been running from for a long time. When you touch a nerve, you find out there’s shock, there’s hurt and there’s pain. We interviewed over 250 men and women for this documentary. That’s six times more than what you would normally do, but there were so many stories. Every interview was emotional. I’m a light-skinned girl from New Orleans and I feel that this documentary was my family’s story. I wanted to be a part of it even though I tried to turn Bill Duke down because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It kept nagging at me, and I came back and told him yes.

Her Light Girls epiphanies: We have celebrities, business executives and everyday women from around the country, South Africa, Japan and the Caribbean. It was the everyday women that made the documentary. I don’t know how many celebrities would say, “I’m a light-skinned girl, because my mother was raped” or “I was involved in sex trafficking because they preferred light women, so they kidnapped me.” A lot of people think lighter skin gives you preference and privilege, but we have women that tell a totally different story.

Healing colorism: As Black women we’ve been cultured to compare and not connect. When it comes to the healing, we need to have honest conversations. We need to say to one another, “Hey. You know what? I was jealous of you” or “I didn’t like you” or “I so wish my skin was as beautiful and brown as yours.”

Being a Black woman in film: There’s power in sisterhood. Imagine what would happen if we all came together. I’m working with a group of women right now. We’re starting a women’s film fund, so we can start funding films and tell African-American and women’s stories.

Her biggest lesson learned: People matter. I’m good at what I do, but it takes a team for us to do what I do. You’ve got to make sure your people are taken care of and treat them right. I go by what Maya Angelou says, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Her stress reliever: My big thing now is marathon training. I run with a group of women. We’re called Thoroughbreds, because we’re over a certain weight and over a certain age.

Her work-life strategy: I think you can make time for what you want. Work balance is something that has always been a challenge. I take little mini-breaks, so I’m not exhausted at the end of the day. I also call my family and they always ground me.

Her superpower: My daily grind. I stop at nothing. That comes from my days as a reporter. You just keep going.

Her boss accessory: It’s all about the suit. I’ve got a couple power suits. I may go cheaper on the blouse, but not on the slacks or the jacket. It’s about the fit. I prefer Boss suits in navy.

Her career highlight: I interviewed Nelson Mandela right after he was elected president. The network I was working at didn’t want to pay for the trip, so I paid my own way on a credit card to Johannesburg. I’ve got a nice photograph with him and he autographed his election poster for me. That’s priceless.

Her tech must-haves: I love Uber and TaskRabbit. I’m a single woman, so every once in a while I need somebody to help me with things around the house. I no longer have to call that ex that I shouldn’t be calling.

The algorithmic CEO

The single greatest instrument of change in today’s business world, and the one that is creating major uncertainties for an ever-growing universe of companies, is the advancement of mathematical algorithms and their related sophisticated software. Never before has so much artificial mental power been available to so many—power to deconstruct and predict patterns and changes in everything from consumer behavior to the maintenance requirements and operating lifetimes of industrial machinery. In combination with other technological factors—including broadband mobility, sensors, and vastly increased data-crunching capacity—algorithms are dramatically changing both the structure of the global economy and the nature of business.

Though still in its infancy, the use of algorithms has already become an engine of creative destruction in the business world, fracturing time-tested business models and implementing dazzling new ones. The effects are most visible so far in retailing, creating new and highly interactive relationships between businesses and their customers, and making it possible for giant corporations to deal with customers as individuals. At Macy’s, for instance, algorithmic technology is helping fuse the online and the in-store experience, enabling a shopper to compare clothes online, try something on at the store, order it online, and return it in person. Algorithms help determine whether to pull inventory from a fulfillment center or a nearby store, while location-based technologies let companies target offers to specific consumers while they are shopping in stores.

Now the revolution is entering a new and vastly expansive stage in which machines are communicating with other machines without human intervention, learning through artificial intelligence and making consistent decisions based on prescribed rules and processed through algorithms. This capability has rapidly expanded into potential connections between billions and billions of devices in the ever-expanding “Internet of things,” which integrates machines and devices with networked sensors and software, allowing the remote monitoring and adjustment of industrial machinery, for instance, or the management of supply chains.

Take, for example, General Electric GE, which has already turned itself into a math house. It has assembled a staff in Silicon Valley to provide customers with advanced analytics that do such things as predict when equipment maintenance is due. As of the middle of last year, this quintessential industrial company had about two-thirds of its $250 billion backlog in orders from services based on its mathematical intellectual property.

Machine-to-machine communication and learning also help managers increase their capability and capacity and the speed of their decisions. The potential uses have barely been scratched, and the growth opportunities of this bend in the road can be immense for those who seize them.

The companies that have the new mathematical capabilities possess a huge advantage over those that don’t. Google GOOG, Facebook FB, and Amazon AMZN were created as mathematical corporations. Apple AAPL became a math corporation after Steve Jobs returned as CEO. This trend will accelerate. Legacy companies that can’t make the shift will be vulnerable to digitally minded competitors.

One of the biggest changes the algorithmic approach brings for both businesses and consumers is a rich new level of interactivity. The customer experience for many legacy companies is often secondhand or thirdhand. A company’s offerings are, for example, bought by distributor X, which in turn sells to retailer Y, which sells to an individual—so the actual user is not the purchaser. In today’s online math houses, by contrast, actual users are increasingly interacting directly with the company—buying and giving feedback without any intermediaries. The companies can track and even predict consumer preferences in real time and adjust strategies and offerings on the run to meet changing demands, which gives consumers leverage they never had before. The data accumulated from these interactions can be used for a variety of purposes. A company can map out in extreme detail all touch points of a user or buyer, gather information at each touch point, and convert it to a math engine from which managerial decisions can be made about resource allocation, product modification, innovation, and/or new product development. The data can also be used as a diagnostic tool—for example, it can reveal signals and seeds of potential external change and help identify uncertainties and new opportunities. It can point to anomalies from past trends and whether they are becoming a pattern, and help spot new needs or trends that are emerging and could make a business obsolete.

Indeed, the math house is shaping up as a new stage in the evolution of relations between businesses and consumers. The first stage, before the Industrial Revolution, was one-to-one transactions between artisans and their customers. Then came the era of mass production and mass markets, followed by the segmenting of markets and semi-customization of the buying experience. With companies such as Amazon able to collect and control information on the entire experience of a customer, the math house now can focus on each customer as an individual. In a manner of speaking, we are evolving back to the artisan model, where a market “segment” comprises one individual.

The ability to connect the corporation to the customer experience and touch points in real time has deep implications for the organization of the future. It speeds decision-making and allows leaders to flatten the organization, in some cases cutting organizational layers by half. A large proportion of traditional middle-management jobs (managers managing managers) will disappear, while the content of those jobs that remain will radically alter. The company’s overhead will be reduced by an order of magnitude. In addition, performance metrics will be totally redesigned and transparent, enhancing collaboration in a corporation—or its ecosystems—across silos, geographies, time zones, and cultures.

To some degree, every company will have to become a math house. This will require more than hiring new kinds of expertise and grafting new skills onto the existing organization. Many companies will need to substantially change the way they are organized, managed, and led. Every organization will have to make use of algorithms in its decision-making. The use of algorithms will have to become as much a part of tomorrow’s management vocabulary as, say, profit margins and the supply chain are today. And every member of the executive team will need to understand his or her role in growing the business.

Ram Charan is a veteran adviser to many Fortune 500 companies and co-author of the bestselling book, Execution.

“If you are fighting a battle, it’s way better if you are at the front lines,” Musk told the Wall Street Journal, describing himself not as a mere micromanager but as something far more intense—a “nano-manager.”

Indeed, Musk makes no apologies for what the Journal described as “a hands-on obsession with the tiniest operational and car-design details at Tesla.” It’s safe to say that his domineering style doesn’t differ at SpaceX, the rocket company he founded and runs.

Musk is the envy of many—and why not? He’s a billionaire. He was married (twice) to a beautiful actress. He has plans to visit Mars someday. He nonchalantly tosses around the word “Hyperloop.” Heck, he’s the model for Tony Stark, the swashbuckling genius played by Robert Downey Jr. in the “Iron Man” films.

But before legions of executives start trying to be nano-managers, here’s a note of caution: This is a terrible way to get the most out of your people.

Workers perform best when they’re in what Paul Zak, my colleague at Claremont Graduate University, describes as a “high-trust environment.” By looking at some 5,000 employees at about 50 companies, Zak and his team at the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies have found that those in high-trust situations are 19% more productive than those in low-trust workplaces. One crucial aspect of being in a high-trust setting, Zak explains, is having “the freedom to take on projects the way you choose to.”

When people’s autonomy in the workplace is sharply curtailed, they feel as if they’ve lost control—and, in turn, their brains react as if they’re being threatened. That raises their level of stress, which often causes them to perform poorly. “Feeling in control, even if it’s an illusion, is key to … cognitive ability staying intact,” Amy Arnsten, a professor of neurobiology and psychology at Yale, has pointed out.

Great managers have always known the trouble with dictating to employees. Successfully motivating employees “involves teaching rather than telling,” William B. Given Jr., the president of American Brake Shoe Co., wrote in his 1949 classic Bottom-Up Management.

This dynamic is especially important in today’s fast-moving world, when organizations need everyone, from top to bottom, to continually come up with fresh ideas. “The tighter the controls you enforce, the lower the innovation,” says F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, a business professor at Notre Dame. In a 2011 study, he and two colleagues studied casino workers under different degrees of management oversight. Their conclusion: “Employees in ‘tightly monitored’ business units face strong implicit incentives to experiment less by deviating less often from explicit decision guidelines.” As a consequence, they “have fewer opportunities to learn” new ways to serve their customers.

There are, of course, instances where a by-the-book culture is appropriate. Tasks in which safety is a paramount concern may demand a tighter leash, for example. Managing during a crisis may also require a heavier hand.

More generally, all employees need direction. The antidote to micromanagement is not to abdicate all management and disappear. Rather, the ideal is to offer employees what former Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet liked to call “freedom within the framework.”

The best leaders set “extremely high standards when it comes to things like the customer experience and the design of the product,” says Chris Yeh, general partner at Wasabi Ventures and co-author with LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. “They provide detailed coaching and actionable feedback.”

Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist for Workplace Management and Well-Being, agrees. His research shows that employees are most engaged when it’s been made clear to them what outcomes they’re responsible for—and are then put in an optimal position to use their strengths to achieve those results.

The trick is to not push it too far—to not “over-manage,” as Harter puts it. The Journal reported that at Tesla, “some high-level managers quit or were fired after clashing with the chief executive over Mr. Musk’s insistence on doing things his way.” This jibes with Zak’s studies: High-trust companies, he says, boast 70% greater job satisfaction and 69% higher job retention than low-trust ones.

Rick Wartzman is the executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University. Author or editor of five books, he is currently writing a narrative history of how the social contract between employer and employee in America has changed since the end of World War II.

Starbucks’ COO Alstead taking ‘extended unpaid leave’

Starbucks Corp SBUX said late Thursday its Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead, who as finance chief helped lead its extensive restructuring a few years ago, is taking an extended unpaid leave to spend more time with his family.

The announcement comes amid concerns on Wall Street that Starbucks later this month could report disappointing results from the holiday quarter, traditionally its biggest for sales.

In October, Starbucks said the early re-launch of its popular Pumpkin Spice Latte seasonal drink failed to heat up business at its U.S. cafes in the quarter that ended Sept. 28.

Last month, Starbucks announced it would add beer and wine, lunch and evening food selections and roll out mobile ordering in a bid to jolt U.S. traffic.

“My expectation is that the company will miss the (fiscal first) quarter, which will be the second quarter in a row, and Troy is taking the heat for that,” said Hedgeye Risk Management analyst Howard Penney, who is bearish on Starbucks.

Penney said traffic to Starbucks cafés has decelerated as the chain’s food menu has expanded. McDonald’s Corp MCD, which has not posted growth in sales at established U.S. restaurants since October 2013, also is struggling with bloated menus, he said.

“I want to be clear that Troy’s decision to take his Coffee Break/Sabbatical and suggestions that his departure is somehow linked to his health or our financial performance last quarter are false, off-base and irresponsible,” CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a memo to employees that was seen by Reuters.

Alstead has been with Starbucks for 23 years, the company said, and his last day in his current role will be March 1.

“The next year is for my wife and children, to give them my dedicated time and attention,” Alstead said in an employee memo that was obtained by Reuters.

Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson said Alstead had planned to take a similar break in 2008 but delayed it at the urging of Chief Executive Howard Schultz, who asked the then-CFO to help turn around the company after the recession sent Starbucks business into a swoon.

Starbucks said Alstead and Schultz will detail transition plans on the company’s quarterly earnings call, scheduled for Jan. 22.

GrubHub CEO gives himself a performance review, after a whirlwind year

Online food ordering company GrubHub entered 2014 on the heels of a merger with competitor Seamless, executed an initial public offering, and bid adieu to co-founder Mike Evans, all in the first half of the year. To say the company tackled a lot is an understatement.

“There were a lot of balls in motion at the same time, so managing and choreographing that dance over the year was pretty challenging,” CEO Matt Maloney tells Fortune.

So far, it seems like GrubHub GRUB and Maloney have managed to keep pace with all of the change quite well. The company’s stock is up by a little over 9% since its April 2014 IPO, and its revenue increased by 51% in the third quarter of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.

To pull off such growth in 2014, though, Maloney says he had to change the way he worked. “Building relationships and putting more trust in my team was a key area of growth for me in 2014. With so many changes over the last year, I’ve had to continuously assess how I need to shift my roles and responsibilities.”

After making it through the last 12 months, Maloney says he feels confident that GrubHub can handle whatever else comes down the pike. “How has that changed me as a manager and a leader? It’s given me a lot of confidence, but I really can’t take all the credit,” he says.

In the first big challenge of the year, GrubHub needed to complete its merger with Seamless, making sure that both companies’ values and cultures were represented in the combined company. “We redefined aspects of who we believe we are and we did that in a shared way,” Maloney says.

Senior leaders invited employee teams to pitch ideas for improving the business in a “Grub Tank,” modeled after the “Shark Tank” television show. The company is acting on all five of the proposals that ended up as finalists.

“One of the most daunting challenges was, how do you bring these abstract values to life in the context of everything else that’s going on with the company?” he says. For instance, the company relies heavily on restaurant and user research, and the physical experience of the food business. Now, the GrubHub’s Chicago and New York offices have an in-house restaurant called Slice, where employees package and serve their co-workers cake.

“It is a way for our dev and product teams to really experience what it was like to be a delivery restaurant team,” Maloney says. “That’s absolutely in line with some of our values … to really give people a tactile physical experience.”

It was important to keep a focus on the factors that would prepare GrubHub for long-term success. “I didn’t want the positive emotions around a successful IPO to just blow out these values, which are more fundamental and resonant to a long-term culture than just a splashy IPO,” he says.

At GrubHub, the past year was all about balancing several demanding priorities. Maloney says that it was challenging to work on the IPO—meeting with lawyers, bankers, board members, and new investors—while tending to the day-to-day needs of the company.

Most companies accomplish half as much as GrubHub did in 2014, without having to contend with the effects of a merger.

For 2015, Maloney says he will focus on putting trust in the team he’s put in place and to be a good listener. “Leadership is about guiding and supporting and listening and modifying. I don’t have all the answers and I never have. But I’ve had good hunches, and I’ve talked to a lot of smart people. And I’m able to refine those hunches into clear direction and communicate that,” he says.

It was bittersweet to see his co-founder Mike Evans leave the company, but Maloney notes that his departure had been planned for some time as the company matured and Evans grew interested in pursuing other things. “It was fun to see Mike every day. It was fun to solve problems with him collaboratively,” Maloney says. “Our friendship hasn’t gone away. We still see each other and we still talk. He’s still a significant shareholder, as he likes to remind me.”

Maloney’s leadership style has changed in the decade that GrubHub transformed from a venture-backed to a publicly traded company. “When we were venture backed, we had a smaller group of investors who were more involved in the business. Now, we have to think about how we communicate more broadly with a much wider audience of investors,” he says

“I’ve changed over the years to adapt to the needs of our organization. What the company needed from me when we were a team of two in 2004 to today when we have 800 employees across three offices is very different.”